This baked orange chicken recipe combines crispy oven baked chicken with a simple orange sauce that’s unbelievably low calorie. Seriously, other than a touch of olive oil, the sauce has <100 calories!
You can serve this baked orange chicken with rice, veggies, or even on its own. And it reheats really well so you could make a big batch and have lunch meal prep squared away for the week.
Baked Orange Chicken Ingredients
The baked chicken portion of the recipe is almost the same as my General Tso Chicken. The orange chicken marinade is the only difference, with the substitution of orange juice instead of soy sauce.
For the breading, you’ll need breadcrumbs and grated parmesan. Like I mentioned in the General Tso recipe, you can swap the breadcrumbs for crushed pork rinds or gluten free breadcrumbs if you need a lower carb or gluten free substitute.
You can also skip the parmesan if you need a dairy free option. The chicken will be slightly less crispy after baking, but it still holds up fine in the sauce.
The baked orange chicken sauce ingredients are pretty straightforward, and I bet you have most of the ingredients in your pantry already. If you’re new to my recipes, the Walden Farms syrup may pop out.
This is a calorie-free syrup option that I’ve used in everything from honey chipotle crockpot chicken to protein granola. Feel free to swap for other sugar free syrups, honey, or even brown sugar like I used in my General Tso recipe.
You may also want to check out my orange chicken meal prep bowls, which use a 4-ingredient sauce and ground chicken.
Other than that, I’ll add that you can get away with using another vinegar if you’re missing rice vinegar. And you can use your choice of oil to start the sauce. If you like spicy orange chicken, chili oil packs a serious punch.
Final Recipe Notes
I made the same nutrition facts mistake from the General Tso recipe and didn’t get the weight of the entire recipe. So, the recipe is divided into 4 servings. If you’d like to find the weigh of each serving, weigh the entire cooked recipe and divide by 4 (or however many servings you’d like). You could also count the total chicken pieces and divide that way.
Rice is always the right pairing idea. If you’d like a lower carb option, check out my air fryer fried cauliflower rice.
And I think that’s all ya need to know. I’d love to know what you think about this baked orange chicken. You can leave a recipe review or take a photo of your creation and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff.
Baked Orange Chicken
Ingredients
For the Baked Chicken
- 1 1/2 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, cut into bite size pieces
- 2 Tbsp 30g Orange Juice
- 1 Tbsp 15g Rice Vinegar
- 1 large Egg
- 3/4 C 90g Breadcrumbs
- 2 Tbsp 15g Grated Parmesan
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper, optional
For the Orange Chicken Sauce
- 1 Tbsp 15g Ginger, minced
- 2-3 cloves 15g Garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp 15g Olive Oil
- 1/2 C 120g Chicken Stock
- 2 Tbsp 30g Orange Juice
- 1/4 C 60g Walden Farms Pancake Syrup, or any sugar free pancake syrup
- 1/4 C 60g Soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp 30g Rice Vinegar
- 1/2-1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, to spice preference
- 1 Tbsp 15g Orange Zest
Instructions
For the Baked Chicken
- Preheat oven to 400F and place a wire rack on top of a baking sheet. Set aside.
- Zest an orange and set the zest aside for the sauce before juicing the orange into a large bowl. Add the egg, rice vinegar, and black pepper. Whisk together.
- Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and add to the orange juice mixture. Stir to coat the chicken.
- Mix the breadcrumbs and parmesan in a large bowl. Dip the chicken pieces in the breadcrumbs and add to the wire rack. If you have leftover egg mixture and breadcrumbs, you can run a few pieces back through a second time.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the largest pieces reach an internal temperature of 165F.
For the Sauce
- Mix the chicken stock, soy sauce, pancake syrup, orange juice, and crushed red pepper together, reserving the orange zest for the end of cooking. Set aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat before adding the ginger and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds.
- Add the chicken stock mixture to the pan. Continue cooking, stirring often, until the sauce thickens. This should take 6-8 minutes or about the same time as the chicken comes out of the oven.
- When the sauce thickens, remove from the heat, add the orange zest, and stir before adding the baked chicken and stirring to coat. Top with sesame seeds, additional orange zest, green onion, and serve over rice or vegetables.
Mason’s version of Orange Chicken is so good that you’ll forget that it’s a healthy version. It is fantastic, fresh, and the portion size is generous. I subbed panko breadcrumbs for the standard and thought it was good but the panko soaked up a bit more of the sauce than I would have liked, especially because the sauce is SO GOOD!
This has curbed my hankering first the almighty Panda Express. Super easy, super tasty, make this ASAP!!
Made this for the first time. It was pretty good, I should have added a bit more spice it was just a tad sweet. We decided to add broccoli to it as well. Our very vocal three year old approved…. not of the broccoli tho.
Made this today, pretty good although i should have added a. it more crushed red pepper or chili oil it was just a tad bit to sweet. we added broccoli to it and was a great rounded meal. our vocal 3 year old liked it to…. not the broccoli.
Mason’s version of Orange Chicken is so good that you’ll forget that it’s a healthy version. It is fantastic, fresh, and the portion size is generous. I subbed panko breadcrumbs for the standard and thought it was good but the panko soaked up a bit more of the sauce than I would have liked, especially because the sauce is SO GOOD!
A little more involved than other recipes I’ve tried of Masons but still great flavor
The chicken itself is amazing. I made extra to use as chicken nuggets for my daughter. The sauce is perfectly sweet and spicy. I added more zest thinking I knew better than Mason. I was so wrong. This recipe is perfection as is! Solid work as always, Mason!
Just as someone else mentioned in their review, I added more orange zest thinking it would need it and, as usual, Mason was right. I definitely recommend making this recipe as-is first and then tweaking in the future if you think you need to (you almost definitely won’t!)
Amazing! I have only recently tried cooking Chinese food and this was a huge hit with my family. I did use Panko instead of regular bread crumbs but think they tend to fall off a little more than regular would. Is in my weekly dinner rotation now! Thanks!!
A little more involved than other recipes I’ve tried of Masons but still great flavor